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Source: San Diego Union Tribune, December 15th, 2017

By Deborah Sullivan Brennan

Around this time of year, birders flock to forests and lagoons en masse, hoping to top last year’s tally for the annual Audubon Christmas Bird Counts.

While that century-long tradition helped establish San Diego as a hotspot for biological diversity, the mammals that share those woodlands and waterways have remained largely incognito.

A new volume from the San Diego Natural History Museum, the “San Diego County Mammal Atlas,” will help fill that gap, offering views of the county’s warm-blooded inhabitants, from bats to bighorn.

“This book is really designed to illuminate all the wonderful mammals we have,” said Scott Tremor, a mammalogist with the museum and editor of the atlas. “This county is more bio-diverse in mammals than any other county in the country. We’re finally bringing all this information together that has taken 17 years to compile. Hopefully, it will help people get answers to all the questions they have, and really open their eyes to what we have in our region.”

The book, set for release Dec. 19, follows the museum’s authoritative bird, reptile and plant atlases, and seeks to round out the record on San Diego’s abundant animal life. The 432-page volume includes all 91 terrestrial species and 31 marine mammals recorded in San Diego since 1769, along with rich images.

“All these wonderful photos help people identify, ‘Oh, maybe that’s what I saw,’” Tremor said.

Take, for instance, the long-tailed weasel: the sleek, russet creature poised on the atlas cover.

You may have seen a streak of auburn scurrying through a park or yard. Or you might not know that weasels live in San Diego. They’re here, inconspicuous but thriving.

“The long-tailed weasels I think are plentiful,” Tremor said. “The population is in great shape, and widespread…. They’re just elusive — you just don’t see them very often.”

Weasels are nomadic and voracious predators that devour entire colonies of gophers and ground squirrels before moving on to the next rodent buffet. And they have distinctive features.

“The black-tipped tail, the mask, the orange, rusty pelt and the movement — the slinky, sinuous behavior is really the giveaway,” he said.

Another lesser-known resident is the ring-tailed cat or miner’s cat. Not really a feline, it’s a relative of the raccoon.

“They’re just beautiful animals,” Tremor said. “The miners used to train them to eat rats in the mines.”

The atlas also highlights curious behaviors of some local mammals: the Mexican long-tongued bat that sips nectar of night-blooming plants; or the badger, which hunts in tandem with coyotes.

“The badger will start digging out a hole (into a squirrel burrow) and the coyote sits on the other end waiting for that ground squirrel to come out,” Tremor said. “Sometimes the ground squirrel comes out and sees the coyote, and runs back to the badger.”

Either way, one of the predators gets a meal, he said.

The tome also introduces the smaller mammals of San Diego. One of the rarest is the endangered Stephens’ kangaroo rat, said Wayne Spencer, a co-editor of the atlas and chief scientist at the Oregon-based Conservation Biology Institute. Their highly specialized diet has left them vulnerable to habitat loss, landing them on the endangered species list nearly 30 years ago.

More closely related to squirrels than actual rats, kangaroo rats have acute hearing and vision, with long tails and powerful hind legs that let them bound like tiny kangaroos.

“They’re beautiful little creatures, very gentle, very clean, seed-eaters,” he said.

At the other end of the spectrum is the minuscule, but mighty grasshopper mouse, a carnivorous rodent with daggers for teeth and an appetite for dangerous prey.

“They’re like tiny little rodent wolves,” Spencer said. “They even howl like wolves when they come out of their burrows in the evening. They have stiletto-like teeth for — it may be gruesome — killing other mice, insects and scorpions. They eat all these other things that other species can’t eat.”

Tremor had his own harrowing encounter with a grasshopper mouse, and another local mammal, on the eve of the Cedar Fire in 2003. He caught one of the little rodent thugs and popped it in a terrarium for photos.

“As I was photographing it, I was so excited,” he said. “When I looked up, I saw eye-shine 30 feet from me. It was a lion that was circling me. I just picked up the terrarium and walked backwards to my car. The animal slowly followed me, but nothing happened. My adrenaline was pumping. I let the mouse go.”

That’s the kind of encounter that makes mammals harder to study than other species, the researchers said. Many of the animals are nocturnal, they’re evasive, and not at all happy when they’re caught.

“We dedicate ourselves to often terrible hours in harsh conditions, very very hot, very very cold, capturing animals and releasing them,” Tremor said.

Even the larger mammals — so-called “charismatic megafauna” such as mountain lions and bighorn sheep — are also solitary or seclusive, and equally hard to spot and study.

The researchers hope the atlas will shed light on some of those animals, and help people see — and potentially save — some of the creatures they highlight.

Although mammals have gotten short-changed in the region’s habitat conservation plans, the atlas could help right that by illuminating the conditions and habitat they need, Spencer said.

“It’s a really good foundation moving forward for landscape planning that includes the mammals, which frankly have been somewhat neglected in our conservation work,” he said.

With detailed descriptions and distribution maps, it could inspire readers to explore new parts of the county to see elusive creatures, Tremor said.

“If someone went out to Borrego Canyon in the middle of the night, just to find a ringtail, they’re moving about there,” he said “We have this reserve land, publicly held open space, that will never be built upon, and harbors a wonderful diversity of wildlife.”

The book will sell for $49.95 in the museum store and online at http://www.sdnhm.org/. Proceeds will support the museum’s Department of Birds and Mammals. The museum will host a Nat Talk and book signing on Tuesday, Dec. 19 at 7 p.m., the release date for the atlas.

Source: Times of San Diego, December 4, 2017

The diversity of mammals in San Diego County is greater than any other county in the United States, yet there has been no synthesis of their identification, distribution, natural history, or the conservation challenges they face—until now.

The new San Diego County Mammal Atlas, which hits shelves later this month, will serve as the definitive guide to the mammals of San Diego County. More than a decade in the making, the 432-page, full-color book covers the biology of all 91 terrestrial species and 31 inshore marine visitors known to have occurred here during recorded history (since 1769). Species covered in the book range from the desert bighorn sheep to the abundant California ground squirrel seen in neighborhoods across the county to the immense blue whale found along our shorelines.

The San Diego Natural History Museum will host a Nat Talk and book signing on Tuesday, Dec. 19 at 7 p.m., which serves as the official release date of the San Diego County Mammal Atlas. The book will be available for $49.95 at the Museum store and online, and proceeds will support the Museum’s Department of Birds and Mammals.

More than 40 biologists have contributed to this book, making it a work of the entire mammalogical community. Bringing it together as editors and authors are Scott Tremor, Drew Stokes, Howard Thomas, and Philip Unitt of the San Diego Natural History Museum, Susan Chivers of the National Marine Fisheries Service, Wayne Spencer of the Conservation Biology Institute, and Jay Diffendorfer of the U.S. Geological Survey. Other major partners include the San Diego Zoo and the U.S. Forest Service.

Although the book is focused geographically on San Diego County, it will be of interest to scientists, conservationists, and educators throughout the United States and Mexico. Readers will likely include students (high school and university), land managers, working biologists, amateur naturalists, and anyone with an interest in San Diego’s wildlife.

“San Diego County is a hotspot of biological diversity, species endangerment, and conservation planning,” said Scott Tremor, mammalogist at the San Diego Natural History Museum and lead author and organizer of the book. “But mammals have been somewhat underrepresented in San Diego’s innovative conservation plans, partly because of spotty information on the distribution, ecology, and conservation status of our local mammal species. The San Diego County Mammal Atlas is a highly collaborative effort to help fill these data gaps.”

Accounts of each species include identification, distribution, habitats, and aspects of natural history such as diet, reproduction, space use, activity patterns, predators, and behavior. They address the conservation issues each species faces in the county, including urbanization, habitat fragmentation, and the increased prevalence of wildfire. Techniques for detecting or surveying the species in the field are discussed, and key topics for future research are highlighted. A list of fossil mammals from San Diego County helps put the current mammal fauna in its evolutionary context.

Detailed skull drawings and photographs of most species help readers with identification. Maps depict localities of Museum specimens and the observations of biologists. Gaps in current knowledge are presented as challenges to inspire students and researchers to pursue in future studies.

San Diego County Mammal Atlas is complementary to the San Diego County Bird Atlas (Unitt 2004), the Museum’s online San Diego County Plant Atlas, and the online Amphibian and Reptile Atlas of Peninsular California. Thanks to these scholarly works, San Diego County is now biologically one of the best-documented regions in the world.

Coast to Cactus by the Canyoneers received a feature in the new San Diego Visitor Planning Guide!  Check out the entire guide for free here!

Source: KPBS, November 29, 2017

California’s largest state park is in the Anza-Borrego Desert and covers 600,000 acres in eastern San Diego County.

The vastness of the park can be daunting, but the definitive guidebook for the region has been helping visitors explore the park for the past 39 years.

The sixth edition of “Anza-Borrego Desert Region: Your Complete Guide to the State Park and Adjacent Areas of the Western Colorado Desert” was released this month.

One of the authors of the book, Diana Lindsay, will join Midday Edition on Wednesday to discuss visiting the park.

Lindsay and co-author and husband Lowell Lindsay will be holding a presentation and Q&A at Adventure 16 San Diego in Mission Valley Wednesday at 7 p.m.

Source: Borrego Sun, November 16, 2017

Wilderness Press has just released a new 6th edition of the area guidebook entitled Anza-Borrego Desert Region: Your Complete Guide to the State Park and Adjacent Areas of the Western Colorado Desert. The first edition of this guide was originally published in 1978.

This new edition coincides with several 50-year anniversaries. Wilderness Press began as a publishing house in 1967, the same year that Lowell and Diana Lindsay, the co-authors of the Anza-Borrego guide, first encountered the Anza-Borrego Desert. It also is the same year that the Anza-Borrego Foundation was founded.

The Lindsays will have their book launch for the new edition at the Park Visitor Center on Sunday, November 19, from 2-5 p.m., with a presentation at 3 p.m. telling how this book came about and how this new edition is different from the previous editions. Their first presentation in the San Diego area will be Wednesday, November 29, at 7 p.m. at Adventure 16 Outdoor Retailer in Mission Valley with a “Happy ½ Hour” preceding the presentation. Other presentations are scheduled through the desert season, which include REI, Sierra Club, and the Borrego Springs Art Guild.

That first visit to the Anza-Borrego desert set a new course in the lives of the Lindsays. Lowell first saw the vast desert preserve while flying a helicopter during US Navy training missions over the area. In 1967 he brought a reluctant Diana to the desert who thought there was nothing there because why else would it be called a “desert?” Each successive trip introduced a new aspect and delightful surprises that continue to this day.

While Lowell served in the Navy, including two tours to Vietnam and as a Navy Survival School Instructor at Warner Springs, Diana attended San Diego State University researching and writing her Master’s Thesis in history and geography, which was subsequently published by Copley Books (a division of the San Diego Union-Tribune Publishing Company) as Our Historic Desert: The Story of Anza-Borrego Desert.

After his Navy career, Lowell worked for the YMCA in Orange County, during which time Diana and Lowell spent their free time exploring the Anza-Borrego desert. It was then that they became aware that the only guidebook for the area was old and that the author Horace Parker had no intension of updating it. They began working on their own guidebook and convinced Tom Winnett, publisher of Wilderness Press, that he should publish a guide to this desert area in 1978.

New editions of the desert guide followed in 1985,1991, 1998, and 2005. The latest edition is a total update to over 1 million acres of desert lands and adjoining mountainous areas. Featured areas include Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, Ocotillo Wells State Vehicular Recreation Area, part of the Santa Rosa and San Jacinto Mountains National Monument, Bureau of Land Management recreational and wilderness lands, and more.

Desert explorations over the many years have led to several award-winning books that the Lindsays have written or edited, including: Anza-Borrego A to Z: People, Places, and Things; Marshal South and the Ghost Mountain Chronicles; Fossil Treasures of the Anza-Borrego Desert: The Last Seven Million Years; Geology of Anza-Borrego: Edge of Creation; Geology and Geothermal Resources of the Imperial and Mexicali Valleys; Ricardo Breceda: Accidental Artist; and Coast to Cactus: The Canyoneer Trail Guide to San Diego Outdoors.

Diana has served as a board member of the Anza-Borrego Foundation for almost 30 years and served twice as president. In 2013 she was presented with the Medallion Award—the state’s highest honor for “superior achievement” in volunteer service. She is an honorary California State Park Ranger. She was also Grand Marshal of the Borrego Days Desert Festival Parade in 2016 and received a resolution from the San Diego County Board of Supervisors acknowledging her contributions to this desert area.

Lowell received his master’s degree from West Texas A&M in political science, specializing in environmental education. He worked for years as a YMCA executive director and managed Camp Marston and Raintree Ranch in Julian, California. He is past president of the San Diego Association of Geologists, served as treasurer of the national Association of Earth Science Editors, and is an active member of the ABDSP Paleontology Society. The Lindsays own Sunbelt Publications, a regional book publishing and distribution company located in San Diego, California.

Former Park Superintendent Mark Jorgensen has called this guide “the bible for anyone thinking about visiting Anza-Borrego Desert State Park.” It is the guide given to new rangers to help them learn about the park. The Anza-Borrego Desert Region guidebook was written in cooperation with California State Parks, the Anza-Borrego Foundation, and BLM. A portion of the proceeds from the sale of the book are donated by Wilderness Press to ABF to help support the Park.

Source: Jim Ruland’s The Floating Library on San Diego CityBeat, November 13, 2017

In his new book, Kumeyaay Ethnobotany, anthropologist Michael Wilken-Robertson explores the ancient and ongoing story of Native Baja Californians and the plants they use to make food, medicine, and traditional arts

San Diego, CA—Divided now by a political border that separates north from south, the indigenous Kumeyaay people of San Diego County and northern Baja California have long made their homes in the diverse landscapes of the region, interacting with native plants and continuously refining their botanical knowledge over thousands of years. Anthropologist Michael Wilken-Robertson has spent decades developing friendships and learning from the elders that carry on these traditions in the far-flung ranches of Baja California, working closely with the Kumeyaay in the revitalization of their cultural heritage. The October 2017 release of Kumeyaay Ethnobotany: Shared Heritage of the Californias, which brings together many generations of Kumeyaay traditional wisdom and decades of research by Wilken, begins with a kickoff at the San Diego Natural History Museum on October 17.

Called, “a work of surpassing beauty that meets the highest standards of research scholarship,” by Chumash Ethnobotany author Jan Timbrook, Kumeyaay Ethnobotany provides in-depth descriptions of forty-seven California native plants and their uses. It also includes lively narratives and hundreds of vivid photographs from artist and professor, Deborah Small. The book connects the archaeological and historical record with living cultures and native plant specialists who share their ever-relevant wisdom for future generations.

“Kumeyaay Ethnobotany provides an enduring work that is a gift of history,” says Former Chairman of the Viejas Band of Kumeyaay Indians, Anthony Pico. “Future Kumeyaay generations will look back and know this scientific contribution was very instrumental on our journey toward cultural revitalization. We Kumeyaay are most grateful to Michael Wilken-Robertson’s lifetime work.”

A series of lectures on the work begin with the October 17 “NATtalk” at the San Diego Natural History Museum, which will be followed by a book signing in the museum store. Other public lectures are scheduled at:

• California State University, San Marcos, Tuesday, November 14, 2017
• Anza-Borrego Desert Natural History Association, Friday, November 24, 2017
• Autry Museum of the American West, Saturday, December 9, 2017

Photographer Will Furman presents his unique “Inside-Out” photography from the new book Bodie: Good Times and Bad by Nicholas Clapp

San Diego, CA— Fine Art Photographer Will Furman presents a photo-illustrated discussion on the newly published book, Bodie: Good Times and Bad on Wednesday, September 13 at 6:00 PM in the California State Library’s Stanley Mosk Library and Courts Building. During the Night at the State Library event, Furman will discuss the unique history of what has become America’s most popular ghost town, as well as how he used a technique he’s dubbed “Inside-Out” photography to capture the haunted feeling of the town.

Bodie: Good Times and Bad (2017, Sunbelt Publications) by Nicholas Clapp with photography by Will Furman examines Bodie’s dual nature. The mining town of Bodie was called both a “fearfully and wonderfully bad place” in the 1870’s—a town of hard-working pioneers. Mark Twain remarked of the town that vice versus virtue made for exciting times.

To capture that Bodie of yesterday in the ghostly remains of today, Furman developed the technique he describes as “Inside-Out.” This entails a single image technique that utilizes both the reflectivity and translucency of windows to create a single image with multiple planes. The result conjures a Bodie that is haunting and evocative. Furman developed his photographic finesse during his career as a commercial photographer, during which he produced scores of marketing and educational films for Apple, Black & Decker, and many other companies. Now a fine art photographer, his work can be viewed at http://willfurmanphotography.com.

A Night at the State Library is a free program made possible by a generous donation from the California State Library Foundation. Attendees are encouraged to RSVP at Eventbrite.

For more information: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/a-night-at-the-state-library-presents-bodie-inside-out-tickets-37258009710

Museum store celebrates first year in print with book signing September 9, 2017

San Diego, CA—This September marks two big events for the Canyoneer trails guides at the San Diego Natural History Museum. First, their hiking season picks up again after a summer hiatus, making available to the public free tours of San Diego’s hiking trails with these highly trained citizen science naturalists. Second, they’ll celebrate the one-year anniversary of the publication of their wildly popular book, Coast to Cactus, which puts all their collective knowledge about San Diego County outdoors into a single 636-page guide. The date will be marked with a celebration at the San Diego Natural History Museum Store on Saturday, September 9^th from 1-4 pm, where Canyoneers, including the book’s three editors, will be on hand to answer questions about hiking and sign books.

Canyoneers are citizen scientists and volunteers who have had comprehensive training by Museum scientists and local experts on the natural history of the region. Founded in 1973 by Helen Chamlee Witham, Canyoneers lead weekend hikes at 70 locations from September through late June. Friday Guides also lead elementary school groups on shorter hikes in local canyons during the school year.

When you hike with a Canyoneer you are encouraged to stop, look, listen, touch, smell, and examine—to understand that everything is linked together. Canyoneers provide a unique opportunity to explore the wild places of San Diego, Riverside and Imperial counties, highlighting the rich biodiversity of the region.

Coast to Cactus: The Canyoneer Trail Guide to San Diego Outdoors was released in September of 2016 with much ado, including a launch party at the corresponding “Coast to Cactus in Southern California” exhibit at the San Diego Natural History Museum. The book was initially conceived by Canyoneer leadership in 2002, though it wouldn’t be until 2012 that the writing would begin hike-by-hike, as Canyoneers resumed the late Jerry Schad’s popular “Roam-O-Rama” column in the San Diego Reader. Like the Canyoneer program, the book introduces readers to San Diego County’s unique natural wonders, providing readers with a “virtual Canyoneer,” that allows them to enjoy an experience akin to a Canyoneer-led foray into nature. The Outdoor Writers Association of California (OWAC) awarded Coast to Cactus the honor of “Best Outdoor Guidebook” in their 2017 Craft Awards.

The celebration at the museum store will allow Canyoneers to answer questions about hikes featured in the book and to explain the book’s many features including a list of habitats encountered in each hike and 525 different species of plant and animal described in full detail. Additionally, the 2017-2018 Canyoneer hike schedule will be available.